WEDNESDAY MORNING'S TOP STORIES

By

SimonKennedy

Pre-open moves

Stock market futures pointed modestly lower Wednesday following big moves in the previous two sessions, with the banking sector in focus as investors await the results of stress tests on the major financial institutions.

Global markets

European shares advanced, led by the banking sector, as investors also reacted positively to earnings news from Deutsche Boerse and Henkel. Asian markets also gained in the wake of Wall Street's rally, with Japanese exporters helped by weakness from the yen.

In his first address before a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama rolled out more of his economic agenda, including promises of job creation, a doubling of renewable-energy production, health-care reform and a bolstering of education. President Obama said he had identified $2 trillion of savings and would provide $15 billion a year to develop wind and solar power and other clean technologies.

Ambac
ABK, +0.00%
said its fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to $2.34 billion, or $8.14 a share, from a loss of $3.27 billion, or $32.03 a share, a year earlier, when the firm had less than half as many shares in circulation. Ambak said its results include a $594.4 million drop in the fair value of credit derivatives and net loss provisioning of $916.4 million.

Merrill Lynch disclosed in a regulatory filing that its fourth-quarter loss totaled $15.84 billion, more than $500 million more than a prior estimate of $15.31 billion from its new owner Bank of America Corp.
BAC, +0.50%
the Wall Street Journal reported.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.
RRD, +1.52%
reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $686.8 million, or $3.35 a share, wider than the prior year's loss of $293.3 million, or $1.37 a share. The group generated quarterly sales of nearly $2.8 billion, down from $3.09 billion. On an adjusted basis to factor out various one-time impairment and restructuring charges, the company said it would have had a quarterly profit of 63 cents a share, a penny ahead of the consensus forecast.

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